


We're having a party

by otc



Category: Sex Education (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:13:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23158360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/otc/pseuds/otc
Summary: Alternate ending to the party in which Otis has a much lower alcohol tolerance, which is much more realistic in my opinion.
Relationships: Otis Milburn/Maeve Wiley
Comments: 14
Kudos: 69





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As said in the summary, I think that Otis definitely had too much to drink to actually be able to make that speech. (He was drinking straight vodka.) This is only going to go on for a few chapters, and then, for those of you who follow my main fic, I'll get back to working on that.

‘My mom is going to kill me’ Otis thought, watching all the people Eric invited as they trashed his house. It was meant to be a small gathering, and suddenly his living room had been overrun by one hundred and fifty strangers. He regretted the fact that he had wanted to prove he could be casual and chill, thinking he would much rather be called uptight than have all these people in his house.

He hadn’t even invited Ola, which had been the whole point of having the ‘small gathering’. He considered inviting her, but thought that the wound was too fresh, and if he wanted her to hear about it, she would hear about it in school the next day. He thought she might be hurt by the fact that he hadn’t invited her, as she had said she still wanted to be friends, and he knew that he would need to apologize to her, because while he was trying to prove something, he also knew that deep down he had wanted to hurt her. He thought it was weird how having your house filled with people you barely knew really made you realize all your mistakes.

Speaking of mistakes, he was wishing he had invited Maeve. She may have been the final push that sent his relationship with Ola over the cliff, but from what Ola had told him, it would have happened anyways. And while he would never say this out loud, he had always liked Maeve much more than Ola, but he had wanted to do the right thing, and he felt like the right thing was to stay with Ola. He told himself to go make things right with Maeve the next day, because he had definitely hurt her as well, and that was the last thing he wanted to do.

His thoughts then moved to Eric. He was going to kill Eric as soon as he saw him. How did he think inviting this many people would be a good idea? He was supposed to be there to help Otis, not stress him out even more.

Speaking of Eric, as Otis turned around he saw Eric standing there, smiling. “Great party Otis!”

Otis’ face turned angry. “Why did you do this? What part of you thought this would be a good idea?”

“I didn’t invite this many people.” Eric said, slightly laughing, then he grabbed Otis’ shoulders, handing him a drink. “Listen, this is the closest you’re going to get to being cool in sixth form, so enjoy it.”

Otis decided he was right, there was no way to get all these people out of his house at the moment, and it was out of control. He took a sip of whatever Eric had handed him and decided to enjoy himself, thinking that would help take his mind off of things.

Suddenly, Eric asked, “Where's Ola?”

“Why would Ola be here? We just broke up.”

“Well, wasn’t the whole point of this to prove that you can be chill?”

Otis nodded. “Yeah, okay.” He pulled out his phone, and texted Ola asking if she could come and pick some things up.

Otis spent the next thirty minutes just standing there, drinking. Eric had gone off with Rahim, leaving him alone to see if he could drink enough to drown out his thoughts that wouldn’t seem to shut up. His brain told him to worry about what his mom would think when she got home. He also wondered about Ola and Maeve, and all of those thoughts made him try to loosen up more, wishing he could just forget about both of them.

He was actually doing pretty good with distracting himself until he saw Maeve sitting there in his living room. He definitely hadn’t invited her, and he didn’t think she would come unless he had. He found Eric sitting at the table, Rahim was somewhere else. “Why is Maeve here?”

“You guys need to talk, you know, clear the air.”

“Well I’m not going to talk to her, she can talk to me.” Otis said, sounding slightly like a toddler throwing a fit. Eric didn’t respond, and Otis went back to his spot and continued drinking. Maeve had brought someone with her too. He didn’t think she would bring another guy if she wanted to talk to him, and his slightly drunk mind told him that she was probably trying to make him jealous, and tell him that she had moved on. He falsely told himself that was fine, because he had moved on as well, but he knew it wasn’t true. 

Within fifteen minutes he was significantly more drunk, and he felt like he was on the verge of losing consciousness for a moment, but then he came back to earth. He told himself that he should probably stop, but then he saw Maeve and whoever that guy was talking and laughing, and he kept drinking. Ola appeared out of nowhere right next to him. “I didn’t know you were having a party, you didn’t invite me.”

Otis turned to face her, swaying slightly and holding onto the wall to steady himself. “Oh, hi Ola. It was a very spontaneous thing. You know, a chill decision.” His words were slurring badly at that point, and Ola could barely understand him.

Ignoring whatever it was he had said, she continued. “You wanted me to pick some stuff up?”

After thinking hard to try and remember the last hour, Otis realized what she was talking about. “Yeah, you left a shirt, and a mug with our faces on it. Oh, and your dad left some tools.” It seemed like each of his words was followed with a burp that sounded like he was going to throw up.

``Okay, I'll go get them.” Ola said with a fake smile. She wondered if she had really messed him up that bad by breaking up with him, but told herself to stop thinking like that. She had done the right thing by getting out of a relationship she wasn’t happy with anymore, and he would have to get through it on his own. Horrified, but Otis was too drunk to notice anything.

The next half an hour was a blur. Otis vaguely remembered Anwar talking to him, but then he threw up. He started to dance, and if he hadn’t been drunk, he would have noticed the looks he was getting from all of his friends. Steve had looked especially

Eric approached Otis, who was now dancing wildly in the middle of the living room. “Hey, Otis, how’s it going?” Then, when he saw Otis reaching for another drink, he tried to stop him. “No, I think you’ve had enough.”

Otis pulled away from him and kept drinking. “No, I haven’t.” Then swinging around to point at Maeve, he asked Eric. “Do you think he’s her boyfriend?”

Eric shrugged. “I don’t know.” Then he was being pulled away by Rahim, and Otis saw Jackson across the room.

Otis approached him. “Jackson you came. I was gonna roast a chicken, but I didn’t.” He then leaned in and quietly said. “Or did I?”

Jackson just looked at him weirdly and began to walk away, but Otis stopped him, suddenly serious. “Why do you hate me?”

Jackson sighed. “You do realize Maeve broke up with me because she’s in love with you? And you’re still not with her.” THen he left, leaving Otis alone once again.

After that, Otis didn’t remember much of the next twenty minutes. He had gone over to talk to Maeve, and ended up dancing with her and whoever she was with. Had he not been drunk he would have noticed that both Maeve and Isaac were looking at him like he was insane, along with many other people around the room who noticed what he was doing. He may have had the intention of actually having a conversation with Maeve, and making things right, but he couldn’t think straight, and the next thing he remembered, he was dancing awfully when Ola came up to them. 

“I got my stuff, I’m going.” Then she looked at Maeve. “You invited her but not me.”

Otis shrugged. “Eric was in charge of the invites, sorry.” He didn’t sound very sorry though.

“Yeah, I think I’m going to leave as well.” Maeve said, grabbing her bag. She wasn’t angry at Otis, but she didn’t want to be around him while he was like that, and she knew that she wasn’t going to be able to have an actual conversation with Otis while he was that drunk.

Otis reached out to stop both of them. “Wait, please don’t go. I have to tell you something. I’m gonna tell everyone, because I can.” Otis got up onto the couch.

“Um, excuse me, everyone, can I have your attention? Can we turn the music down please.” The music stopped and everyone was looking at him. He had to think for a minute about why he was up there in the first place, then he saw Ola and Maeve, and he remembered why. 

He began to speak. “So, um, this is Ola. I don’t know if you know her, she’s quite little, and um…” he had no idea where he was going with this. “And um, we broke up recently, after Maeve told me she liked me, and Ola said I couldn’t see Maeve anymore…” He trailed off, thinking about what he wanted to say next, and he looked and saw Eric shaking his head wildly at him. He wasn’t sure why Eric was doing that, and he was about to continue, but suddenly, he lost control of his body and his vision went black.

He woke up a while later in his bed, and the first thing he noticed was that the house was silent. The second thing he noticed was that he was still drunk, but it had worn off enough for him to cringe at what he had done at the party earlier, and he could now feel a throbbing pain in his head. He stood up to go see what had happened downstairs when suddenly he noticed he wasn’t alone in his room. Eric was sitting in a chair near his bed, and Maeve was leaning on a shelf across the room.

Eric looked up and smiled slightly. “Good morning my best drunk friend.”

Otis put his hands to his head and asked. “Is it really morning already?”

Eric shook his head. “No, it’s only been a few hours. Your mom’s not home yet.”

Otis nodded. “Thank god for that.”

Suddenly, Maeve got up and walked towards the door. “Where are you going?”

Maeve looked at them, and Otis could see that she was very angry. “I was just making sure he wasn’t dead, he doesn’t want to see me anymore, so I’m going home.” She left his room, and he heard her walking towards the front door.

He tried to go after her, but he moved too quickly, and suddenly found himself on the ground, trying not to throw up. Eric helped him up, and they walked downstairs together, but Maeve was already gone. “Shit.” Was all that Otis said.

When he looked around he noticed that the house wasn’t nearly as messy as he remembered. Instead of looking like there had been a huge party, it looked like a small gathering that had turned a little wild. He knew that Eric and Maeve had cleaned up a bit, and he turned to look at Eric. “Thank you for cleaning up.”

“Maeve helped too. She left with that guy, but then she came back alone later, and she helped me pick up. Steve was the one who helped me get you into bed.”

“I really screwed up, didn’t I?” Otis asked.

Eric shrugged. “I mean, Maeve didn’t talk to me much, but she was definitely angry. But on the other hand, I think you’re lucky that you passed out when you did. I have no idea what you were going to tell everyone next, but it definitely was not going to be good.”

Otis heard the door open, and before his mom could get in the room, Eric told him. “Let me do the talking.”

Jean came in looking confused. “What happened in here?”

Eric started talking immediately. “Sorry Jean, we only had a few other people here, but it got a little wild, we can clean up though.”

Jean looked at Otis, and he just nodded. She sighed. ;That’s alright Eric, I’ll clean this up, you boys have school in the morning, so you better get home.”

Eric took the opportunity and left, thanking her on the way out. Before she could question Otis, however, he walked up to his room and went right to sleep, not wanting to think about Maeve or Ola, because he was going to have some stuff to explain tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry for the long wait, but I'm finally back with an update. I also want to take a moment to talk about my other fic. I don't intend to promote it, but anyone who has been looking for a new chapter on that should go check. I posted one, but for some reason it didn't go to the top of the page like it usually does, so I don't know if everybody saw it, I just wanted to get the word out about that. I hope you like this chapter.

Otis woke up with his head throbbing and his stomach threatening to throw up anything he hadn't last night. He hadn't noticed how much his fall the night before had hurt him when he passed out, but now he definitely felt the pain. He had been to drunk to feel it that much in the moment, but the side of his body that he had landed on was aching fiercely. He cursed himself for ever thinking that drinking that much was a good idea, and he told himself that he would never go to another party for the rest of his teenage life.

Yet, it wasn't the hangover Otis was most worried about. Sure, it would be uncomfortable for the rest of the day, but he could just sleep it off and be fine the next day. What worried him the most was how he had upset Maeve. He hadn't wanted to talk to her before the party because he believed she was at fault for his and Ola's breakup. Seeing her still there to make sure he was okay changed his mind, it reminded him that she hadn't been trying to ruin his relationship, she cared about him too much to do that. And then seeing her storm off made him realize that he wasn't ready to lose her, even if he had originally been the one to cut things off between them. 

He wasn't quite sure why she was so upset though. He thought maybe it was because he told her he couldn't see her anymore, but why would she have come to his party if she was already upset with him? She had come there with the intention of fixing things from what he could tell, which meant that something changed during the party. Maybe if he had been able to finish his drunken speech he would understand why she was upset, but he had passed out before he could say anything hurtful. He didn't remember exactly what he was planning on saying, but he knew he had the intention of hurting her, so in a way, he was actually glad that he had passed out, otherwise things could have been much worse. He made a mental note to ask Eric if she might have said something while they were cleaning up that would tell him what exactly it was that he did wrong.

Speaking of Eric, he needed to get ready quickly. He had woken up late, and Eric would probably be there in just a few minutes. Otis quickly got dressed and grabbed his backpack, opting to skip showering that morning, even though he probably needed to after last night. He just got downstairs when he heard a knock at the door. _I guess I'll have to skip breakfast as well.,_ he thought, b _ut then again, I wouldn't be able to keep it down anyways, would I?_

* * *

"You really need to work on your dancing, Oatcake." Eric chuckled as they rode their bikes into school.

"Haha, very funny." Otis responded sarcastically.

"You also need to work on your alcohol tolerance if you plan on drinking that much again, because I'm not dragging you up to your room next time." Eric said, pretending to be annoyed.

Otis sighed. "Yeah, I don't think I'm going to another party for a long time, it's not a good idea."

Eric suddenly got serious. "Speaking of, have you thought of what you're going to say to Maeve yet? She was pretty upset with you."

Otis shook his head. "I was actually hoping that you could help me with that. I'm not even sure what I did that made her upset, because she seemed willing to talk at first, but then after I passed out, she was suddenly angry at me."

"I have no idea, man. You better figure it out though, because I can't deal with you guys not being together for one more day. I have no idea why you didn't talk to her after Ola broke up with you."

"Because I'm an idiot."

"You're not entirely wrong there." Eric joked, trying to lighten the mood, but Otis wasn't having it. "Listen, I've got to go find Rahim, but I'll catch up with you later. Good luck with Maeve."

Eric left Otis there to try and figure out what to do. Last time he messed up, he had given her the trophy and the note, but he felt like just an apology wasn't going to be good enough this time, and he wasn't sure what was enough. He ended up deciding that he needed to at least talk to her, even if he didn't quite know what to say, that's what his mom would probably tell him. She would say that he needed to show that he cared, and he needed to do that by at least attempting to make things right, then he could worry about how to actually do that.

Otis quickly scanned the courtyard trying to find Maeve, and he didn't see her anywhere. He opted for going inside to his locker and seeing if she was at her locker. If she wasn't he would wait until she got there, it was still early for everyone to be there yet. Hopefully when she did show up, he could actually build up the courage to talk to her, otherwise he might as well not even try.

When he got to his locker, he saw that she was already at her own. He could tell from the look of her that she was definitely still upset, and he couldn't say that surprised him. She didn't seem to notice him, and he thought that was good, if she had noticed him, she probably could have scared him off with a single glare, but now she couldn't.

It turns out she did notice him though, because as soon as he was within ten feet of her, she spoke to him coldly. "What do you want, Otis?"

He jumped in surprise, then he did his best to compose himself and talk to her. "I was hoping that we could talk about last night, and maybe sort things out?"

She turned to look at him, and he could see that she was very clearly upset, but her voice was still cold as ice. "What is there to sort out?"

"Well, you were very upset with me last night, and I can see that you still are, so I want to fix what I did."

"And how are you going to do that?" She asked him, crossing her arms.

Otis tugged nervously at his own sleeve. 'Um.. I didn't really get that far yet, I was hoping you could tell me how I could make it up to you?"

She scoffed at him. "I'm not going to fix your problems, Otis. You wanted us not to see each other anymore, so I'll do my best to make sure that happens." She began to walk away.

Otis grabbed her arm before she could get to far. "Wait! Please just tell me why you're upset. You seemed willing to talk last night, then all of a sudden you were upset with me. I'm sure I deserve it, but what did I do?"

She shook her head. "You're pathetic, you know that?"

"Please, I want to make things right."

Suddenly she was full of anger. "You want to know what upset me? Fine. You didn't get very far in your speech or whatever you want to call it, but I heard enough. You were so willing to just cut me out of your life because your girlfriend told you to. You of all people should know that's not okay."

Otis was still confused. "What do you mean, 'I should know that's not okay'?"

"You're literally a sex and relationship therapist, how can you not know how awful it was for her to make you choose between me and her? How could you just stop being my friend? All that does is show me that you didn't really care about our relationship as much as I did."

She then walked away quickly, leaving Otis behind in shock. The few students who were in the halls at that point were staring at him, seeing if he would go after her, but he didn't. 

_Well that was shit._ He thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope it made sense why Maeve was still upset with Otis, even though he didn't get to finish his speech. Thanks for reading, and I hope to get a new chapter out faster than this one came out.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I don't have much to say before this chapter, but I hope you enjoy!

When she got home from school, Maeve practically threw herself on the couch, wanting to stay that way forever. Normally when she got home she had the motivation to get her school work done right away, but today she couldn’t even find the motivation to get up. She hated that Otis seemed to control her emotions more than she did, especially after she had so much practice in not feeling anything at all, or at least pretending she didn’t.

She only found the motivation to get up when she heard someone knock on her door. For a quick moment when standing up she thought maybe it was Otis and a smile almost came to her face, but she pushed it back. Otis was like any other guy she had ever met, he just managed to fool her for longer than the other ones had. She convinced herself that she would be okay with it if she never saw him again.

Instead of it being Otis at the door when she opened it, she instead found Aimee, looking up at her and smiling. “Hey Aimee, what are you doing here?”

“Well, after last night and what I heard happened this morning, I’m here to make you feel better.” She responded with a sympathetic look on her face.

Maeve didn’t really feel like hanging out with anybody, and she certainly didn’t want to accept anybody’s sympathy, but she didn’t have the heart to turn Aimee away, so she stepped aside and motioned her inside. 

Aimee came in and set her bag on the table, then sat down on the couch and patted the spot next to her for Maeve to come sit down, almost like Maeve was the guest instead of the other way around. Maeve sat next to Aimee and was about to ask what she wanted to do when Aimee started to talk instead. “So what exactly is going on between you and Otis? I heard some stuff, but I don’t know everything.”

Maeve then realized that Aimee wanted to talk her through it instead of taking her mind off of it, which would have been much better. She sighed. “Nothing much, I just found out that he was willing to abandon our friendship because his girlfriend wanted him to. Obviously, our relationship didn’t matter to him as much as it did to me, so I’m getting over him.”

Aimee knew that Maeve was far from over Otis, and she wouldn’t be there anytime soon, but she didn’t say that. Instead she asked, “Don’t you think that’s a bit harsh on him? I mean, I know it wasn’t fair of him, but think about how confused he was. From what you told me, he was very upset when you told him you liked him, he got very upset and left. He was probably so scared of doing the wrong thing that he just decided to listen to his girlfriend, I think you should talk to him about it.” Aimee had no idea how close to the truth she actually was.

Maeve thought that Aimee could be right, she had kind of thrown the whole thing on Otis at a really inconvenient time. She had a pretty good guess at what Otis meant when he said “boyfriend girlfriend hang time” and she supposed that had been part of why she admitted it when she did. She could imagine how confused that might have made him, and she did feel some sympathy for him.

She told herself to stop feeling bad for him, that he was still an asshole and she didn’t want anything to do with him. This time she forced herself to remember the time he had told Jackson what she liked, and used that as another excuse as to why he wasn’t worth her time, and she told herself not to think of the heartfelt letter and the trophy he had given her the next day.

“Maeve, you there?” Aimee was waving her hand in front of Maeve’s face.

Maeve snapped to attention, realizing she had been lost in thought. “Sorry, I was thinking. This isn’t the first time he’s let me down, it just proves that he’ll do it again.”

Aimee knew what she was referring to, and while Maeve wanted to forget the letter and the trophy, Aimee wouldn’t let her. “Oh you mean when he gave you the letter and the trophy that you told me was ‘The best gift you’ve ever gotten’?” 

Maeve remembered telling Aimee that while teaching her how to play scabby queen, and she kicked herself for saying it, even though it was true. "Whatever, I still don’t want to talk to him. Can we just do something else?”

“Fine.” Aimee said grumpily, “But I still think you should cut him some slack.”

They ended up getting out a deck of cards and playing scabby queen for a while. Eventually Maeve’s mom got home and Aimee met both her and Elsie for the first time. They ordered a pizza and Erin even joined in for a few rounds of scabby queen, then Aimee had to go, but as she was going, she told Maeve to “Talk to Otis, I know you still love him.”

Luckily, her mom didn’t hear that, she didn’t feel like talking about it with anyone else. However, she did question whether or not she treated him to harshly again, but she told herself that she didn’t, and she made herself go to bed before she could have any more conflicting thoughts on the situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maeve is finally realizing that Otis isn't the only one of them who makes mistakes ;). Reading over this again, I definitely feel like some of the things Aimee said were out of character, but I feel like Maeve needed to hear them, and I can't think of anybody else who might tell her, so that was my thought process when writing this chapter. I hope you enjoyed!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait. I was going to make this chapter a really long one, but when I was about halfway through, I accidentally deleted everything, so I only wrote this much, but I think it's okay. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

In the two weeks since his confrontation with Maeve, Otis became a shell of his former self. He was never a very talkative or outgoing person in the first place, but after what happened, he found himself even more quiet and reserved than usual. Sometimes he came out of his shell a little when he hung out with Eric, but not very often, and even when he did, it wasn't very long before he was feeling down again.

Jean had noticed how upset he was almost instantly, but every time she tried to talk to him about it, he just told her that he didn't want to talk about it. That was how she knew something was really wrong, because normally when she started asking questions, he would get angry at her, but this time, he didn't seem to have any fight in him, and that worried her more than anything. She wanted to help him get through it, but she didn't even know what caused him to feel so down in the first place, so she couldn't do anything.

At first, Eric thought that maybe Otis would get over Maeve after a few days, then things could go back to normal, but he was very wrong. Instead of getting better, things almost seemed to be getting worse. At first, Otis would at least hang out with Eric after school, but now he wouldn't even do that. Every time Eric asked him if he wanted to hang out after school and play video games, Otis just shook his head and said he wasn't in the mood, and it was rare for Otis to deny hanging out and playing video games.

Otis had seen Maeve looking at him a few times during classes and assembly, and each time she did, he thought maybe she would smile at him and say that she forgave him. That never happened though, and every time he saw her looking at him, her face turned angry and she glared at him until he looked away. This is what upset him the most, because every time he told himself that maybe instead of glaring she would smile at him, but she never did.

That morning, Otis woke up after getting only a few hours of sleep which was becoming the new usual for him. He knew that he was basically self destructing, but he didn't have the time or the energy to care. He made himself breakfast and met Eric outside before his mom could say too much, he didn't feel like putting up with her questions at the moment.

On their way to school, Eric decided to try one more time. "Do you want to hang out after school today?"

Otis shook his head weakly. "No thanks, I'm not really in the mood."

"Otis, you need to start getting over her sometime soon, you can't stay hung up on her forever." Eric said, trying his best to get through to his friend.

"I'll be fine. I'm just not in the mood." Otis knew he wasn't going to be fine, and so did Eric, but he gave up trying to convince Otis. They rode the rest of the way to school in silence. As soon as they got there, Otis said a quiet goodbye to Eric and left for class with his eye on the ground. Eric wasn't sure what he was going to do, but he knew he needed to do something to get Otis out of his funk.

* * *

Maeve wasn't doing much better than Otis was, but she was doing a much better job of hiding it. She saw how Otis was struggling, and there were times where she wanted to go to him and make things better, but she never did. Every time she considered making up with him, her brain told her that he deserved it, and that she was better off forgetting about him. So instead of trying to make things better, she walked away instead.

Even though she was doing a pretty good job of hiding her feelings, Aimee still noticed that Maeve was feeling very down, and every day she tried to get Maeve to talk to Otis. She hadn't had any luck yet, but she wasn't going to stop trying until Maeve felt better.

Bothering Maeve about Otis became a regular thing while they ate lunch, so Maeve wasn't surprised when Aimee brought it up. "You should go talk to Otis." She said, noticing that Maeve kept stealing glances at him across the courtyard.

"Why would I do that?" Maeve said, still pretending to be over Otis.

Aimee sighed. "You may think you're doing a good job of hiding your emotions, but I can read you like a book. You're just as depressed as he is, you just don't want to admit it."

Maeve shook her head. "I'm completely over him, I'm fine."

"Then why do you keep looking at him like that?"

"Like what?" Maeve asked, pretending not to know what she was talking about.

"You're looking at him the same way he looks at you. You're definitely still in love with him." Aimee told her.

"I'm not in love with anybody and I never was." Maeve said firmly, trying her best to convince both Aimee and herself of that fact.

Aimee seemed to give up for the day. "Fine whatever. I know that you're not over him, but I guess you're not ready to admit that yet."

They ate the rest of their lunch in silence. Aimee gave up on trying to get Maeve to open up, and Maeve was too busy trying to steal glances at Otis without Aimee noticing, so she didn't try to make any conversation. Maeve was fine with that, she knew that if they started talking, it would lead right back to Otis, and she didn't want to talk about him again.

As she was staring at Otis, he looked up and noticed her. He looked like he was about to smile at her, and maybe even wave, but then she forced herself to change her facial expression, and soon enough she was staring daggers into him. His face fell and he looked away, then he stood up and walked back inside.

Aimee punched Maeve in the shoulder lightly. "Why do you have to be so mean to him?"

Maeve shrugged, trying to pretend she didn't care. "He deserves it."

"He does not, and you know it. I tried to say hi to him in the hallway the other day to cheer him up and he looked like he was going to break down in tears. If you're not going to talk to him, at least have a little mercy."

Maeve was surprised by what Aimee had just said. Normally, Aimee always agreed with her, but this time, she was taking Otis' side. It made her think about whether or not she was being too harsh, and she realized that she was. She decided that she wasn't going to try to make Otis feel bad anymore, but she still wasn't going to talk to him. She did see how bad he was doing, and she was concerned for his wellbeing, so she would back off. 

* * *

Otis walked out of the bathroom after he felt like it didn't look like he had been crying anymore. He had originally planned on going to class early after leaving the courtyard, but he found himself unable to control himself, so he ran to the bathroom before anybody could see that he was about to start sobbing. He made it into the stall just before the tears began to flow, and he had to sit there for at least fifteen minutes before they stopped.

He wished he could just disappear forever, he didn't want to be in the building for one more minute, but he knew that wasn't possible, so he forced himself to get it together, and he walked out of the bathroom trying to look like nothing had happened. He needed to get going if he was going to be on time to class, and while he didn't really care about class, he didn't want the extra attention that came with being late, so he quickly walked to his locker, and then to class.

Because he wasn't early like he normally was, there was only one spot to sit in, and it was next to Aimee. He felt his heart drop as he walked over to sit next to her. She hadn't been mean to him, in fact, she had been nice to him whenever they passed in the hallway, but he couldn't be around her without thinking about Maeve. He told himself he was being crazy, and that he could handle one class next to her, so he sat down and pretended that everything was okay.

She smiled at him. "Hi Otis."

He attempted to smile back, but it wasn't very convincing. "Hi Aimee, how are you?"

"Better than you I suppose." She said, looking concerned. "If it helps, know that I'm trying to get Maeve to talk to you."

"Thanks, but I don't think she's going to talk to me again." He felt his eyes begin to well up with tears. He tried to stop them, but he wasn't able to.

"I don't think that's true, she's still not over you, even if she tells herself that she is. Just be patient, she'll come around." She told him, noticing he was about to cry and trying to comfort him.

He shook his head. "I messed up, I'm an awful person. If she's not over me yet she will be soon enough." Tears were beginning to stream down his face.

"No, you're not awful, she just needs time to come around."

"Thanks, but you don't need to try to make me feel better." he got up and practically ran out of the classroom, saying something to Mr. Hendricks about using the bathroom.

Aimee knew Maeve was her best friend, but she was going to get it next time they talked. She felt really bad for Otis, and even though they rarely talked, seeing him like that made her want to yell at Maeve. She took out her phone and asked Maeve to meet her by the bathrooms after school, she was going to keep her there until she agreed to at least talk to Otis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even though I'm the one writing this, I'm getting really irritated at Maeve, she's definitely mostly in the wrong here. I hope this isn't to sad/angsty for you guys, if it is, don't worry, things will get better soon. Also, just to clarify, this chapter takes place between the seventh and eighth episode of the second season in case you were wondering. Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like Maeve might definitely still be angry at Otis for reasons that will be explained in the coming chapters, but in my opinion, it is much easier for her to get over her anger than it would be for her to get past Otis saying what he would have said had he not passed out. Thanks for reading!


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